June 10, 2026
The Ultimate Guide to Customer Contact Week Las Vegas 2026
Every June, the customer contact industry decamps to Las Vegas, and this year is no different. Customer Contact Week returns to Caesars Forum from 22 to 25 June, with over 300 speakers on the programme, and an expo hall full of vendors all claiming to have cracked AI in the contact centre.
If you haven’t attended before, it’s worth noting that CCW is no longer just a typical conference. For contact centre and CX leaders, it’s now an annual industry check-in—a chance to see if your AI plans are ahead of the curve or lagging behind. In addition, attendees can benchmark themselves against their peers, form new partnerships and find, action, new frameworks for their CX operations.
Las Vegas is the main event in a three-part US series run by Customer Management Practice, with other conferences in Orlando in January and Nashville in October. Their CMP Research team also shares benchmarks and advice throughout the year.
Organisers expect that 54% of the Fortune 100 will attend this year. Financial services make up the largest group at 23%, followed by healthcare, technology, and retail. The event uses separate pricing for end users and vendors, which helps keep a good balance between buyers and sellers. This means most conversations on the floor are between practitioners, not just salespeople.
The mood this year
While 2024 and 2025 focused on experimenting with AI, 2026 is the year leaders will need to show real results. Simply running pilot projects is no longer enough, especially for the board.
Senior leaders are no longer just curious about AI. Now, the main question for any company focused on customer experience is how to automate at scale without losing customer trust, risking compliance, or overwhelming the staff who handle tough conversations. Workshops focus on putting AI agents into action, while the summits cover leadership and the human side of automation. Choosing vendors is now seen as a key skill, not just a routine task. The main agenda topics—digital transformation, generative AI and new technologies, workforce strategy, self-service, and leadership and culture—highlight where real change happens or fails.
Industry numbers show why staying ahead is important. Gartner predicts that by 2029, agentic AI will handle 80% of common customer service issues on its own, reducing costs by about 30%. By 2028, they expect at least 70% of customers will begin their service journey with a conversational AI interface.
Daniel O’Sullivan, a senior director analyst at Gartner, calls agentic AI “a game-changer for customer service.” He also points out that more customers will soon use their own AI agents to interact with businesses, so service teams need to prepare for regular machine-to-machine contact.
However, adoption is still far behind the forecasts. McKinsey research shows that only about a quarter of organisations are scaling agentic AI, while around four in ten are still experimenting. Most live projects are limited to just one or two areas. This gap between predictions and reality is what CCW aims to address. The real challenges with AI in contact centres are not technical—they are about governance, knowledge management, workforce redesign, and measurement. These are the main topics for the 2026 agenda.
Who’s on stage
CCW is known for combining celebrity speakers with in-depth industry insights, and the 2026 lineup continues this tradition. Rebecca Jarvis, ABC’s chief business, technology, and economics correspondent, returns as host. Shaquille O’Neal, now a successful investor and businessman, will speak about brand and revival. Restaurateur and TV personality Lisa Vanderpump will take the main stage on Wednesday afternoon, which fits well for an industry focused on top-notch customer experience.
Damola Adamolekun, CEO of Red Lobster, may be the most relevant headliner for many attendees. He has spent the last two years leading a major turnaround in American dining, a challenge many in the audience face. Chris Barton, founder of Shazam, will talk about product innovation. Tabatha Coffey will share her direct approach to fixing service cultures, and Bryan Stoller, VP of customer support and advocacy at United Airlines, will represent the practitioner perspective among the headliners.
Beyond the headliners, more than 300 speakers make up the core of the event. They will share case studies on topics like omnichannel strategy, AI deployment, and workforce optimisation, with insights from global brands, vendors, and startups. Past Vegas events have included speakers from top companies in retail, manufacturing, beauty, and gaming, and this year’s program is also focused on practical, real-world experience.
See the full agenda here.
The week at a glance
Monday, June 22, is a gentle start to the week. Badge pick-up is available all day. The invitation-only CMP Research Circle for senior leaders begins in the late morning, and the welcome party starts at 6pm.
Tuesday is dedicated to deep work, featuring intensive workshops and role-specific summits such as the Innovation Summit, Management Summit, and CCWomen Summit. In the evening, the CCW Excellence Awards Gala takes place, the industry’s main recognition event.
Wednesday is the main event day. The main stage opens at 8am, and the expo hall is open from 10am to 4:30pm. Breakout sessions run throughout the day. Lisa Vanderpump will close the main stage, and the after-party starts at 8pm.
Thursday starts with the CCWomen breakfast at 7am, followed by a final day of main stage sessions, breakouts, and a networking reception in the expo hall until mid-afternoon. Many people consider leaving on Wednesday night, but those who stay often say Thursday has the most genuine conversations of the week.
See the schedule here.
Worth planning around
Some parts of the event are worth planning for in advance, rather than just dropping in.
The expo hall is still the best place to evaluate vendors quickly. Live demos and one-on-one meetings about AI, analytics, and CX management can save you months of discovery calls—if you schedule meetings ahead of time instead of just walking the aisles.
A new feature this year is the Executive Leadership Exchange, an invitation-only program for top executives to meet privately and benchmark with peers away from the main event. This responds to the growing demand for peer-level discussions that aren’t held in front of vendors.
CCWomen is now a true year-round community for women and allies in customer contact, not just a side event. The 2026 sessions focus on major topics like closing the technology knowledge gap and the future of women in CX leadership. The Thursday breakfast is also one of the best networking opportunities of the week.
It’s a good idea to download the CMP Research materials before you go. The 2025–2026 Customer Contact Benchmarking Report and the Prism evaluation of customer analytics tools provide the foundation for many discussions at the event. Reading them in advance will help you stay ahead in conversations.
A quick housekeeping note: organisers have warned about third parties selling fake attendee lists and unofficial hotel bookings before the event. Make sure to book everything through official channels.
Should you go?
If your 2026 goals include scaling AI beyond pilot projects, redesigning agent roles, streamlining your technology, or checking if your operation is keeping up, you should probably attend. No webinar, analyst briefing, or vendor demo can match the value of having the whole industry together for four days. Bring a specific question, invite the supervisors who run daily operations—not just executives—and make sure to stay for Thursday.
CCW Las Vegas runs 22–25 June 2026 at Caesars Forum. Registration and the full agenda are at customercontactweek.com.
